FunCom is soon to release a wad of new information about its MMO The Secret World (check out psychological profile for your faction recommendation), after being shown at PAX, but currently it’s still being kept secret by The Man. The moment we can kill them all we’ll have all the details, but until then you’ll have to make do with this really rather pretty CGI trailer. Clearly it reveals nothing of what happens in-game, but it suggests a lovely spooky atmosphere. And a pretty girl fighting a weird bird beast. Which is enough.

The thing about Secret World is that while the setting seems really interesting, I always end up thinking that the combat looks like it will end up being classic MMO click-and-wait, with hordes of abilities with cooldowns to throw in every so often.

I’m a big fan of Tornquist and this world sounds exciting and new. Just a shame its a MMORPG, so all the interesting bits will be padded by 50 hours of grind and filled with people. And I hate people, they’re all bastards..

It’ll never happen in a million years, but I really hope they take some inspiration from the Monster Hunter series. There’s a game that gets the ‘Humans vs Supernatural Monsters’ concept absolutely right. You’ll win if you’re smart, prepared and experienced. You can’t grind to magically do more numbers worth of damage, and even with the best armor money can buy, you’ll still die in just a few hits.

It’ll almost certainly be a standard MMO combat system, but I’d love to see another game with a combat engine that emphasizes player knowledge (just being able to read when a creature is going to strike, and where the attack is going to land can make all the difference) and skill, rather than raw stats.

Let’s not have the CGI-means-everything scuffle again. Regardless of its literal meaning, it is accepted shorthand for pre-rendered footage and we’re happy to use it and see it used as such here. RPS FACT-O-LAW = LAID DOWN.

I’m pretty sure Tornquist has come out and said there’s no grind – that it’s more like Guild Wars in that respect. (There might have been “a grind” in GW, or even several “grinds”, but at least it didn’t force “the grind” on players like other MMORPGs.)

This is stupid. And you know why it’s stupid? Because it’s cool. Cool trailers like this one piss me off because I know after three or four of them the game will come out and it will feature your avatar standing in one place, whacking a critter with a bat in the same canned animation over and over and over again.

@Matosh – that’s why I again invoke hopes that someone, SOMEWHERE notices the (retardedly huge in Japan) Monster Hunter games. They managed to have badass intros that actually show off what you’ll really be doing ingame.

The theme is great! A few years back a friend and I were working on a script for a comic which was to have a similar setting. Of course I got too lazy to ever get my ass down to draw a panel, so the idea was discarded…

BUT the last time I was so anxiously awaiting a MMO release based on the mood and setting looking cool, I was hugely disappointed. And I really tried to like the game, ending up in just more hours thrown away for nothing. That experience being rather recent, I’m not getting my hopes up that this will end up awsome… or playable.

Hm I was hoping for the Templars (religious nutters with lots of guns – yay!) but I played it as honestly as I could and ended up with the Dragon. Disappointing at first, since they’re the only group I’ve never heard of, but they do sound kinda cool, so I’ll remember that when the game goes live.

I do disagree with Jim though: that is not enough. WTB actual gameplay footage plz.

This video is the one that got me seriously interested in the game; the last one was cool to watch, but not all that exciting. Has anyone read the book Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman? Tell me that, after seeing this video, you wouldn’t love to have a good old-fashioned boss fight against the Bird Woman. Thank you, Ragnar Tornquist, for enabling this crossover/geek-out.

I got Dragon, like most people it seems. @MonkeyMonster: I selected the Katana and got Dragons. I would have thought it was much more likely that the katana was linked to Dragons.

I like the look of the world they are creating. Like others have said, Tornquist seems to be great at creating some interesting mythology. He does certainly have similarities to Whedon, although I think that is more about him emulating him, as he has said on multiple occasions that he loves his work.

But, it is an MMO and my aversion to a monthly fee means I doubt I’ll ever play this. Oh well, hopefully a new Longest Journey game could come after this.